Creative Agencies Research Articles

A partnership composition project between professional composers, a university music education program, and a comprehensive school extended music program

In this Finnish-based study, professional composers ( n = 2), student music teachers ( n = 6), eighth-grade comprehensive school pupils studying in an extended music program ( n = 22), and university and school music educators ( n = 2) were brought together to pilot a partnership model for teaching and learning music composition. The one-year project offered (a) a composition pedagogy course for student music teachers, including lectures by composers and a seminar and teacher training in a comprehensive school, and (b) collaborative composition workshops for eighth-grade pupils under the supervision of student music teachers, professional composers, and a school music teacher. In Part 1, we conducted a survey to investigate pupils’ experiences relating to their creative musical agencies and basic psychological needs. In Part 2, we used a phenomenographic approach to examine educators’ perceptions of student music teachers’ development as composition teachers. In Part 3, we used phenomenography to study the student music teachers’ experiences of their development as composition teachers. The results indicate that (a) the musical agency and basic psychological needs of the eighth-grade pupils were supported; (b) the educators succeeded in planning and implementing the pilot course, taking into account both the social and pedagogical aspects of collaborative composition; and (c) the student music teachers felt that their attitudes toward teaching music composition changed and that their confidence increased during the project. We recommend future modifications to the present educational model and consider its potential implications for music education in the Finnish context.

‘Unsponsoring Football’: Sign Value, Symbolic Exchange, and Simulacra in a Gambling-Related Marketing Campaign

This article utilises Baudrillard’s concepts of sign value and symbolic exchange to examine the ‘Unsponsoring Football’ campaign which was designed by the marketing and creative agencies VCCP and Octagon, and carried out in conjunction with the bookmakers Paddy Power. Clubs were ‘unsponsored’ by Paddy Power, which paid for the right to not display its logo on football shirts. The campaign concept involved ‘spoof’ shirts which are simulations of the ‘real’ items. A four-step process through which the simulacra develop is outlined in the article. The campaign parodies UK government policy on gambling-related sponsorship, which has been criticised for its failure to regulate what is a globalised market. The 2023 White Paper ‘High Stakes: Gambling Reform for the Digital Age’ is notably similar to the parodic position taken in ‘Unsponsoring Football’. Removing some elements of sponsorship while retaining a wider relationship with the gambling industry means that the gamblification of the sport remains in place.

KONTRIBUSI JOB DEMANDS DAN JOB RESOURCES TERHADAP PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING PEKERJA CREATIVE AGENCY DI JAKARTA

This study aims to examine the contributions of job demands and job resources to the psychological well-being of creative agency workers. Creative agencies often require longer working hours and higher workloads to meet customer demands. However, the resources provided by companies to support workers sometimes do not adequately compensate for these demands, which can negatively impact workers' psychological well-being. Despite this, creative agencies depend heavily on their workers to achieve company targets, and the psychological well-being of these workers plays a crucial role in their ability to develop their potential and function optimally. It is predicted that adequate job resources to meet job demands will enhance the psychological functioning of workers. This research utilized quantitative methods and involved 106 creative agency workers in Jakarta, selected through convenience sampling. The instruments used for measurement were the Questionnaire sur les Ressources et Contraintes Professionnelles and the Psychological Well-Being Scale. The results of multiple regression analysis indicated that job demands and job resources significantly contribute to the psychological well-being of creative agency workers. Specifically, job demands have a negative impact on psychological well-being, whereas job resources have a positive impact. Therefore, even though the work is demanding, sufficient resources can help maintain the psychological well-being of workers.

Traditional agencies on bridges: How is digital transformation changing business models?

AbstractDigital technologies produce new strategic and organizational challenges for incumbent firms that require major digital transformation (DT) processes, leading to the evolution of business models (BMs). Contributing to the research stream on DT and BM evolution, this study explores which technologies have the most relevant effect on core BM dimensions, i.e., value proposition, value creation, and value capture, by investigating both the consequent themes and intensities of change in these dimensions. A valuable context for analysis was chosen: the advertising industry and traditional communication agencies, namely, creative and media agencies. Based on 38 in-depth interviews with senior communication professionals and qualitative content analysis, we propose a comprehensive reading of (1) the impact of specific technologies on different BM dimensions and components and (2) the themes and intensities of change in creative and media agencies’ BM dimensions. Finally, we outline an interpretative framework, identifying two different paths for incumbents: outside-in BM adaptation and inside-out BM innovation. This study therefore offers two academic contributions. First, it overcomes the vagueness of previous investigations that considered the effects of digital technologies in general terms, and it also resolves the narrow scope of research that focused only on the impact of one specific technology. Second, by deepening the understanding of the joint evolutions and intensities of change across all three BM dimensions, this study has widened the limited scope of previous contributions on one BM dimension. By doing so, it offers a comprehensive reading of BM dynamics due to DT.

Visual Metaphorical Advertising: The Moderating Role of Creativity and the Mediating Role of Informativeness

The use of visual metaphor is a creative and prevalent practice in the advertising industry, but it poses a significant challenge in terms of understanding the intended advertising message. This study suggests the importance of determining the appropriate level of creativity in designing effective advertising campaigns. It also emphasizes the significance of incorporating informativeness into advertising messages, as visuals alone may not suffice in creating a successful advertising campaign. To address these aspects, a combination of research methods was employed, including the analysis of 3,000 conceptual advertisements. Existential-phenomenological interviews were conducted with eight domain experts, and responses were collected from 305 participants, which were analyzed using Smart PLS. This extensive research effort unravels latent dimensions and provides valuable guidelines for advertising and creative agencies’ design teams. The findings underscore that dependence on visual metaphor alone is inadequate to capture the audience’s attention and elicit their emotions without the addition of informativeness and/or creativity. These findings have profound implications for advertising and creative agencies, offering valuable insights for the design of visual metaphorical advertising campaigns.

Strategi TVRI Medan dalam Meningkatkan Kualitas Siaran di Era 4.0

This research examines TVRI Medan's strategies for improving broadcast quality in the era of 4.0 using qualitative descriptive qualitative research methods, data collection techniques such as observation and interviews. The results show that TVRI Medan's strategies for enhancing broadcast quality in the 4.0 Era involve the use of the latest technology, development of digital platforms, collaboration with educational institutions and local creative agencies, and more active interaction with the audience. TVRI Medan's success in improving broadcast quality is attributed in part to the availability of adequate broadcasting technology support. This significantly influences the quality of broadcast programs, as the general public tends to prefer media with high-quality content. TVRI continues to enhance quality to adapt to changing media trends, improve the appeal and quality of broadcasts, and develop innovative content.

ПОРІВНЯЛЬНИЙ АНАЛІЗ МОДЕЛЕЙ ТА МЕТОДІВ УПРАВЛІННЯ МАРКЕТИНГОВИМИ ПРОЕКТАМИ

The article examines the importance and effectiveness of using the project management methodology to ensure timely and budget-effective implementation of projects in accordance with customer requirements. The author emphasizes that project management is a strategic process that encompasses project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring, control, and closure. Special attention is paid to the role of project management in marketing, where complexity and constant dynamics require careful planning and execution. Using project management techniques in marketing teams can improve planning, improve efficiency and productivity, improve communication and collaboration, provide greater control over budget and resources, and lead to improved campaign results. Various marketing project management methodologies, their characteristics and differences are studied. The waterfall cascade model is defined as a sequential approach to dividing a project into fixed tasks, which can be effective for short and well-defined projects, but not suitable for complex and long-term tasks. Agile flexible model and Scrum are defined as fundamentally different approaches based on collaboration, iterability and speed. Agile emphasizes individuals over processes, while Scrum is defined by short iterations and a team motivation system. The Critical Path Method (CPM) and Critical Chain Marketing Project Management (CCPM) are defined as methodologies aimed at determining and optimizing project completion times. Integrated Marketing Project Management (IPM) is seen as an approach focused on standardizing and sharing processes across the organization, which can be useful for large creative agencies. Methodologies (PRiSM, PRINCE2, PMI PMBOK) expand the range of available approaches to marketing project management. Each of them has its own features and applications depending on the specific needs and characteristics of the project. The article provides a comprehensive overview of various methodologies and their relevance to specific conditions and types of marketing projects.

Obstacles, Solutions and Creative Agencies: How Forces and Agencies Shape the Learning Process of Weaving

This paper explores how design students overcome various obstacles they encounter during their design processes. By studying the processes of three textile design students during their weaving course, we investigated the forces and agencies that help overcome or accommodate obstacles by developing solutions. The interview data showed that while learning and advancing a skill, in our case weaving, various obstacles emerge through direct and indirect interactions. By recognizing how to position themselves and build relationalities, students start working with various agencies to develop ways of being with these obstacles. Our findings propose that experiencing obstacles fosters the learning process of students by leading them to actively look for ways of being with other elements while becoming more skillful in their practice.

Conservators, Creativity, and Control

ABSTRACT This article explores the role of conservators and focusses on their creative agency in the preservation of cultural heritage. It argues that conservators constitute a ‘recursive public’ who collectively make the field both highly collaborative and highly modifiable. The author then sets out how conservators engage in a form of ‘ontological constructivism’ where they use their creative agencies in adversarial, anexact, and generative processes and act as ‘art-developers’ to commit to the next version of a work. Drawing parallels with software development, the author proposes that conservation should be seen as a form of version control that creates time-stamped ‘versions of record’ that persist until the next cycle of care. To emphasise the lack of finality in any artwork the author produces a series of ‘endgames’ to illustrate the ontologically open-ended nature of cultural heritage. The article suggests that in exploring the distributed nature of creative agency through the lens of version control, conservation can provide greater understanding into the real conditions of art and cultural production and how they continue to evolve over time. This then helps disrupt conventional notions of authorship and allows conservation to contribute to a more inclusive understanding of art and culture in our institutions.

Transformation of the content life cycle at Edrington — The home of exceptional spirits

This paper identifies and provides solutions to the challenges faced in digital asset management (DAM) within the context of a global premium spirits company. Through example use cases and reference to other studies, the paper explains the considerations to be addressed when transforming DAM from a static repository to a dynamic source system at the centre of media syndication. Assessment of the user requirements from the perspective of the brand content creators, digital asset management team and the end user (be it within the company, creative agencies, joint ventures or customers) is provided, and the approach to solving these differing needs explained. The paper provides insight into the early identification of potential issues around asset protection, the flexibility of taxonomy and how to future-proof a DAM system to ensure wider integrations are achievable with DAM as the one source of truth for media. Soft skills such as active listening and user empathy have proven to be an important part of the approach, therefore practical ways to improve these skills are suggested, including communication techniques and bringing stakeholders on the transformation journey to provide them with a clear vision of the future.

Crisis communication in the creative industry: Specifics of B2B and B2C communication of advertising agencies

The article discusses the specifics of crisis communication in the creative industry, more particularly in the communication of advertising and creative marketing agencies on the Slovak market. The main focus is on the business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-customer (B2C) communication of advertising agencies. The content and the findings of the article are related to the author’s previous articles (Szabóová & Spálová, 2019; Szabóová, 2019) in which the author defines how creative employees or rather employees in advertising agencies perceive the crisis, maps the level and nature of the staffing and material provision of crisis communication in advertising agencies, etc. The author equally reflects on differences between the nature of crisis communication in the creative industry mapped by the author and between the anchoring of crisis communication by recognized and quoted experts (e.g., Chalupa, Chudinová, Vymětal, Bednář, and others) who perceive crisis communication rather as a field of management and crisis management of companies with an automatic transition to crisis communication with media. The article is comprised of selected findings and conclusions from the author’s dissertation (Szabóová, 2021) in which, based on the results of the research, the author defines the frequency of crisis communication, although not in general, but specifically in the B2B and B2C spheres in agencies, followed by the causes of the crisis in the observed spheres, tools of crisis communication, the specifics as well as the differences.

Scrolling into the Newsroom

Abstract In recent years, scrollytelling – a method to animate content as a reader scrolls through an article – has become an integral part of online visual storytelling. Despite its popularity, few studies have examined the variety of existing scrollytelling techniques. In addition, scrollytelling is still costly to produce. This study aims to generate a scrollytelling vocabulary for newsrooms and creative agencies. By analysing 50 examples, we have identified granular characteristics of scrollytelling elements, or ‘scrollers’, and grouped them into five standard techniques: graphic sequences, animated transitions, panning and zooming, scrolling through movies, and showing and auto-playing animated content. The study provides information designers, developers, and visual journalists with a vocabulary to experiment with different scrollytelling techniques and implement scrollers faster and more easily.

Visual representations on Nigerian trucks: a semiotic study

Abstract The public transport sector in the urban landscape in Nigeria is a prominent social site for the spatial distribution of automobile graffiti signatures. Transporters have various kinds of symbolic tags on their vehicles that convey different messages which represent their local attitudes, beliefs, religious identities, folk psychology, and safety precautionary measures to recipients (other road users and passers-by). This article, based on two case studies, examines the practice of automobile graffiti on trucks and lorries in Calabar metropolis, Cross River State, south-eastern Nigeria. It investigates the motivations, thematic categories, and subjective semiotic interpretations of these verbal signatures from the perspectives of visual semiotics theory using participant observations, semi-structured interviews, and informal conversations. The study demonstrates that truck drivers/owners use their vehicles as visible artistic platforms in the public space to express their thoughts and sentiments on personal, social, and religious issues affecting the society. The study concludes that these inscriptions and imageries are artistic subcultures that mirror wide ranging value categories and provide outlets for spatial transformation, creative agencies, and social commentaries.

TRENDS OF THE ADVERTISING AND COMMUNICATION MARKET OF UKRAINE AND PROMOTION OF THE ADVERTISING AGENCY BRAND IN THE SOCIAL MEDIA

In this article, authors analyzed the main indicators of the Ukrainian advertising media market functioning between 2017–2022. Particular attention was paid to the segment of the media marketing known as Digital Advertising, as well as to other market sectors, including: PR-market and marketing services, trade marketing, loyalty marketing, consumer marketing, event marketing and sponsorship, and non-standard communications. The authors analyzed the activities of five advertising agencies for their efficiency ratings as creative agencies between the years 2019–2021. A comparative analysis of advertising agency websites is presented, characterizing the presence of advertising agencies of Ukraine on social media. Based on the results of the study, the authors propose a holistic communication system of measures to increase the activity of subscribers to the online presence platforms of the participating advertising agency.

The Ghost in The Machine

This paper proposes a new perspective on the role of computers in the re-materialization of ancient artifacts, highlighting issues of conservation, self-expression, and authorship in creative processes. Specifically, our approach allows all of the creative spirits (i.e., creative agencies) taking part in the making process---from the ancient makers, to the digital craftsperson, to the making machine itself---to be represented in the final outcome. The paper explores the evolution of our technique through three projects that rely on both digital and traditional making practices. We introduce the notion of a digital spirit, which allows for a holistic and respectful integration of diverse making agencies in a unified hybrid practice.

Borderscaping Hong Kong

Lo Ting, a mythical half-human and half-fish figure, has been appropriated by local cultural workers since 1997. Based on the 1998 exhibition ‘Hong Kong Reincarnated: New Lo Ting Archaeological Find’ and the film Three Husbands (Fruit Chan, 2018), this article examines the creative agencies of Lo Ting from the perspective of ‘borderscaping’. The study affirms borderscaping as active signifying, discursive and affective practices that involve dynamic processes of adaptation, contestation or resistance in the subject-making of Hong Kong people. Set in two different contexts, post-1997 and post-2014, both productions have arguably sought a new form of becoming or belonging, and envisaged the Hong Kong/China border as something that can (or cannot) be crossed, interpreted and reinvented rather than passively inhabited. By offering new (geo)political-cultural imaginations, they have sought a new spatiality of politics, shifting from the rigid territorial spatialities of the nation-state to representing, negotiating and contesting the ‘where’ of the border.

Multispecies storytelling in botanical worlds: The creative agencies of plants in contested ecologies

This paper argues for engaging in multispecies storytelling with plants to better conceptualise the ethics and contested ecologies associated with biodiversity loss. It focuses specifically on proteas, the iconic species of South Africa's threatened fynbos biome, to explore the possibilities of an ethical dialogue between human and more-than-human diversities, and to consider what might be gained from understanding plants as both agentic in contested ecologies and as storytelling figures worthy of attention. The paper draws on John Ryan’s conceptualization of phytography as a way of engaging in multispecies storytelling with plants. It teases out interwoven botanic and human histories, and the ways in which iconic proteas have written themselves into the narratives of their human interlocutors in the context of European settler colonialism, conservation, floral nativism and post-apartheid nation-building. The case for phytography is developed through an examination of the corporeal rhetoric of proteas in two examples. The first concerns the Mace Pagoda, a protea that resists narratives of extinction by writing back its percipience, agency, and resilience into human stories of anthropogenic habitat loss. The second focuses on botanical traces that result from absence, specifically the non-appearance in recent years of proteas in the Cederberg area of the Western Cape. The paper suggests that absence is a form of corporeal rhetoric through which plants write themselves into narratives of rapid climate change and multispecies loss. The final section of the paper explores questions of ethics that emerge from engaging with plants as storytellers, reflects on the kinds of human-plant relationships that are possible in the context of environmental catastrophe, and examines the possibilities that phytography provides for more-than-human engagements with plant life.

After the National Film Unit, before social media: Wellington tourism film’s urban narratives and production dynamics 1991–2008

ABSTRACT This article analyses the development of Wellington tourism film from 1991 to 2008, release years of Absolutely Positively Wellington and Spoil Yourself in Wellington TV commercials, respectively. While performing the textual analysis of five case studies released for domestic TV circulation, it examines their underlying tourism marketing and place-branding dynamics in the broader context of the political, institutional and cultural transformations that marked New Zealand and its capital city from the late 1980s onward. Such political and social context, characterised by the privatisation and sale of public assets and businesses, the transformation of public institutions into profit-driven corporations and the closure or downsizing of government departments and government-led institutions, coincided with the reorganisation of Wellington's economic, institutional and social assets, with the reshaping of the city's identity and with the redefinition of local tourism marketing strategies. This article argues that Wellington tourism film's institutional background started to be increasingly characterised by a process of growing and deepened interaction and partnership between local tourism bodies, creative agencies and private stakeholders. It also intends to trace the succession of different but interconnected urban narratives that informed local tourism film production, before the contemporary narratives about Wellington as a ‘creative city’ took hold.

Creative Agencies in Participatory Sound Art: Two case studies

This article explores the distribution of creative agency between artists and audiences in participatory sound art through the lens of perspective theory. In contemporary creativity studies, perspective is taken to mean the way in which an actor’s perception of the environment is structured by their intention to act. According to Vlad Glaveanu, constructing and taking new perspectives constitutes a necessary condition for creative acts as it reveals new affordances of the creator’s materials. In this article, I investigate the perspectives of sound artists and participants through ethnographic case studies of Katrine Faber’s participatory performance Let Us Sing Your Place and Benoît Maubrey’s interactive Speaker Sculptures. In Faber’s performance, the participants use their voices to recreate the soundscape of a place described by one of them. Maubrey’s sculptures are large structures built out of loudspeakers through which the participants can play their own sounds via Bluetooth, phone lines or directly plugged-in microphone. Analysing ethnographic observations and interviews with artists and participants in the two case studies, I discuss how their perspectives are constructed and communicated through artwork’s materialities. Exploring the particularity of perspectives induced by participatory sound art, I show how it challenges a number of conventional ideas about sound and auditory culture.

STRATEGIES OF MARKETING ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS OF UKRAINIAN CINEMAS: THE BEST ADVERTISING CASES

Introduction. Modern marketing communications are the basis of promising business and promotion of its services. Along with the development of technology and the digitalization of society, advertising on the Internet is in great demand. Especially now, with the martial law in the country, advertising using offline communications is impossible, so companies are forced to master new platforms to promote their products and implement online communications to attract audiences. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to determine marketing approaches to the promotion of Ukrainian cinema chains through online communications, analysis of advertising in social networks, the selection of tools and channels of promotion, taking into account the factors of external and internal environment. Materials and methods. The research materials are 1) works of foreign and domestic scientists who conducted research in the field of marketing, imageology and brand management; 2) use of Internet resources, in particular the official websites of creative and media agencies; 3) statistics of the annual report on the number of Internet users, in particular in Ukraine. The following scientific methods were used in the research process: system approach (definition of a cinema chain as a system, all objects of which are interconnected); method of analysis and synthesis (study of all individual tools of promotion, which together constitute a common system of marketing communications of the cinema); case method (for a detailed analysis of the advertising activities of individual cinemas in wartime); generalization (formation of research results). Results. The article fully covers the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of the process of promoting cinema chains through online communications in the media space. The main channels and tools for promoting online communications are identified, marketing strategies for communication activities of cinema chains in social networks are analyzed. Discussion. In the following scientific researches the analysis of the general system of marketing communications of cinema chains, development of the differentiated strategy of marketing communications, definition of target landmarks of advancement is offered. This will provide an opportunity to improve the promotion strategy, increase the effectiveness of advertising, expand the audience and establish communication with it.